We're Gonna Burn
by abbyli
Summary: "My name is Stefan. I am nineteen years old. I am the victor of the 100th Hunger Games...Why am I alive? I shouldn't be alive." Hunger Games verse


**entitled: **(we can light it up) and we're gonna burn

**summary: **"Stefan has no idea what kind of an effect he can have on the world." Hunger Games verse.

**pairing: **stefan/bonnie (taking the place of katniss/peeta respectively)

**rating: **t (for now)

**disclaimer: **I do not own anything related to Vampire Diaries or Hunger Games.

**notes: **So this is going to concentrate on Stefan and Bonnie as heroes more than any kind of romance. NO TRIANGLES. More of a modern day Hunger Games setting so don't be weirded out if you see motorcycles and college mentioned in the beginning.

Title comes from the song 'Burn' by Ellie Goulding.

**WARNING!** Damon bashing in this story. Damon is gone, having abandoned his brother a few years back, but he is the Damon he is on the show. I'm sorry, even though I do ship Bamon, I cannot stand Damon right now. So if you have a problem with it, do not bother reading because you're not going to like it.

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_My name is Stefan...I am nineteen years old. _

_Why am I still alive? That's a good question. _

_I personally do not know the answer to that. _

_All I know is that I am the victor of the One Hundredth Annual Hunger Games. But I am not the only victor. _

_This is our story. _

* * *

As the years went by, the rules changed.

There were no longer Reapings but official 'Choosings'. As the population grew, it become impossible to hold actual Reapings so the selection process became cleaner and quicker. It 'saved time', as the new president so affectionately put it. And the districts were no longer districts because of the sudden population growth. 'Colonies'.

_Colony 1, Colony 2, Colony 3 _

And so on and so forth.

Today was the day that the final 'Choosings' would come out.

That's just the thing though. This is a different kind of Choosing.

Today was the day that Fourth Quarter Quell would take off. Today was the day that the One Hundredth Hunger Games would officially begin.

And the Choosings were from an existing pool of victors.

Stefan Salvatore could remember his Games like they were yesterday.

Okay, they were actually two and a half years ago but hell-

Yeah, that's the way to put it.

They were total hell.

The arena he had been dropped in was in the middle of winter with sub zero temperatures. Many of the other tributes had come from warmer climates and colonies while he had come from the smallest colony which experienced harsh winters and very warm but short summers. He knew how to survive.

So that's what he called it later on to his family.

He survived.

He was a forgotten victor. One that never made a mark because really, he came from a boring Games.

There were other victors that were stronger than him. Smarter. Faster. More interesting. Victors that had survived in the most bloody of ways.

Those kind of victors could go back in. They could do it again. But he couldn't.

He wouldn't.

* * *

The knife lands right in the center of the target, perfect point.

"Nice shot!"

Stefan turns a smile towards his friend as she claps, trying his best to ignore the heaviness of his heart.

Lexi Branson wasn't a victor but she was his friend. She kind of took over after his parents died and his older brother took off, giving him a shelter he didn't realize until then how much he really needed.

Lexi was a hunter. She supported her family by illegally hunting in the woods, and she had taught him how to hunt as well. He didn't think he was too good but Lexi begged to differ most of the time.

He once had a family. He had parents, an older brother and a baby brother. He was happy. He was oblivious to everything that was going on around him.

Then his mother died.

Antonia Talbot Salvatore was an amazing woman, from what he could remember of her. He had been only ten when she had died from consumption, a deadly disease that had swept through the Colony and claimed nearly half the population. It took his younger brother Aiden along with his mother, leaving him alone with his grieving older brother and his suicidal father.

Stefan could honestly say that Giuseppe Salvatore tried. He really did. But the grief of losing his wife and youngest child nearly destroyed him. In the end, he wound up taking it out on Damon and Stefan.

For the longest time, Stefan had been very close to Damon. Yes, they had had a seven year age difference and by the time Stefan was eligible to be Chosen, Damon had already gotten too old. But Damon had been through it. He had made it through all of the Choosings and he was able to calm Stefan's nerves. To help him get through each and every Choosing, even when their father wasn't around.

Then Damon left.

He just left.

Three weeks after Damon had taken off, Stefan's name came out of the glass bowl. He became a tribute in the 97th Hunger Games and then later the victor.

Coming home to an empty house had been nearly the end for him. He learned from his mentor that his father had finally committed suicide while he was in the arena, his body cremated and the ashes buried in the Colony cemetery.

That had been it. He was done.

Then Lexi stepped in.

Lexi Branson and her family had always been close with the Salvatores from the get go and her showing up on his doorstep in the Victor's village had saved his life. He had been ready to just let himself die.

That's all he wanted. To die. What kind of a life did he have now without family? Without his brother watching over him?

Lexi made sure that in her home, he had a place to go. That he was welcome and safe.

He knew he wouldn't be alive today if it wasn't for her.

* * *

"Do you think you'll be Chosen?"

Lexi's gentle voice pulls him out of his thoughts. Practice was over almost an hour ago and in that time, the two had been walking.

"Do I think I'll be called?" Stefan repeats, glancing her way. "I honestly do not know." A beat. "You must be relieved. At least your name's out of it this year."

"Hey," Lexi says firmly. "I would never, _ever _wish this on anyone. I'd rather my name be in it this year so you wouldn't have to be. Stefan, this is truly ridiculous."

"What can I do, Lexi?"

Lexi's hand snaps out and her fingers close around his arm. He turns suddenly, glancing at her with surprise in his green eyes.

"Let me get this across right here and now, Stefan," she says. "_If _your name is Chosen, which it probably won't be, you will fight this. You have no idea what kind of an effect you can have."

"Me?" Stefan says, almost laughing. "Who the hell am I? I am the forgotten victor! I won my Games by hiding the whole time!"

"Exactly!" Lexi snaps. "You won by fighting the elements themselves. And you can do it again!"

"Lexi -"

"Stefan, shut up for a second." Her fingers tighten around his arm. Their eyes meet briefly and she takes a deep breath.

"You are the bravest person I have ever known," she says softly. "And I know that in the slight chance that your name is Chosen, you can beat this thing. You can fight it again. Promise me."

Stefan can't help but stare at his best friend.

"Promise me that you will fight."

The words come off his tongue a lot easier than he had ever imagined they would.

"I promise."

* * *

He's not exactly sure how he ended up here.

The Choosings had always been a bit of a blur, especially the last two. The last two, he had been there as a mentor. The last two, he had met four kids who he and one other victor trained. Of course, they never had their own victor.

His co-mentor, her name was Bonnie. Bonnie Bennett.

And that was all he really knew.

During those Games, they barely spoke to each other.

Bonnie was a year older than he was and she had won the 94th Hunger Games at the age of thirteen. She had gone down as the youngest ever to win. He hadn't watched her Games and he knew nothing about her. And he hadn't been about to ask.

As he filed into the Town Square, his eyes caught the stage. It was set up elaborately, just like every single year. A woman stood on the stage, flanked by security guards. Every year, they always had a new escort to the Games. Someone new, someone who had been properly brainwashed.

"Bye," Lexi whispers in his ear.

He casts her a forced smile before he heads to his own side of the compound. The male victors of Colony 12.

There were eleven victors all together from the Colony. Four women and seven men. One man was already near eighty years old and looked startlingly familiar. He wasn't sure who it was though.

His eyes dart over to the other side where the four women are gathered. He can see Bonnie Bennett among them, her face a mask of sturdiness and something else that he couldn't really place.

She really was very pretty.

He watches as the new escort, called Aralee, takes her place on the stage.

And it begins.

"Welcome everyone to the Choosing for our 100th Annual Hunger Games. This really is a big year for us. Quite a milestone," she says with a cheerful chirp into the microphone. "Shall we begin? And always, ladies first."

Stefan finds his heart jumping into his mouth.

Aralee digs her hand into the bowl that holds only four pieces of paper and draws one out.

"Our female tribute for the 100th Hunger Games is...Caroline Forbes."

He hears a shaky sob to his right. When he turns, he sees a blonde that looks almost a little too much like Lexi leaning against Bonnie, her arms wrapped around herself as she trembles with sobs.

Bonnie hugs her close for a brief moment, pressing a kiss to her head.

Then Stefan remembers.

Caroline had been the first tribute that Bonnie had ever mentored. Caroline had used to be a fighter and a strong one but after her Games were over, her mind had slipped a bit. He had heard stories. It also explained why Bonnie had been the one to mentor all the tributes in the last six years.

"I volunteer as tribute," Bonnie says calmly.

"What?!" Caroline bursts out. "No!"

"Well, this is something new," Aralee says with a dry chuckle. "Come on up here, dearie."

"Bonnie, you can't do this!" Caroline cries. She tries to chase after Bonnie as she ascends the stage but a large black man that could only be Bonnie's father stops her, gently pulling her back. "Bonnie!"

Bonnie takes the stage, standing beside Aralee. Her pretty face is devoid of all emotion. She ignores Caroline's cries, her green eyes focused straight ahead over the crowd.

Stefan watches all of this blankly. He can't even wrap his mind around the fact because - well, because it was so true. And it sucked.

Once a now subdued Caroline is in Mr. Bennett's arms, Aralee begins again.

"And now, for the boys!" She reaches a long taloned hand into the other bowl. A few more pieces of paper are almost opaque in the late afternoon sun. Her fingers take the bottom one and ...

"Our male tribute for the 100th Hunger Games is ... Stefan Salvatore."

* * *

Anyone else want to be Stefan Salvatore?

Of course, no one will volunteer for him. He is the youngest of the small group of male victors and he doesn't know any of them. Why should they want to volunteer to go back into an arena that had given them nightmares and agony for all the years of their lives?

He can feel Lexi's eyes on him but doesn't chance a glance back. He knows that if he even looks back at his people, at the family that had become his family in the last years, he won't make it. He would fall to pieces.

So he walks slowly up to the stage, taking his place beside Aralee. He stares straight ahead, above the heads of the crowd, his gaze burning into the dipping afternoon sun. His vision whites out and he can't see anything.

"So there we have it. Our male and female tributes for the 100th Hunger Games. This is going to be the best games ever!"

There used to be an hour of time where a tribute got to say goodbye to their families. After an event that had occurred several years ago, that was taken away. Stefan was almost grateful for that as he feels a strong hand come down to grip on his upper arm and begin to push him towards the Justice Building. His vision is still fuzzy so he can't really see anything.

Not that he cares.

He hears Bonnie's voice behind him, rough and irritated.

"I got it, buddy! Get your hands off me!"

And something begins to work again inside of him.

He pulls his arm out of the Peacekeeper's grip and turns, his eyes finally focusing on the beautiful Bonnie Bennett's face. He reaches out his free hand and she takes it without question. With that, they both break away from the Peacekeepers and walk forward to the waiting train, never looking back.

* * *

**Shall I continue? **

**This idea has been bouncing around in my head for a while and after finally seeing Catching Fire, I was able to finish the chapter. It came out shorter than I thought but what I had written doesn't quite fit for the intro. **

**Shoot me a review. Shall I continue or leave it as a oneshot? **


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